I&B Ministry Plans To Use AI, ML To Stay Ahead Of Emerging News Trends; Will Scan Thousands Of Online Portals

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) is planning to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies to predict media trends.

Requested an Expression of Interest (EoI), the Ministry mentions that staying ahead of emerging news trends is essential for effective communication and public engagement.

"By leveraging AI and ML technologies, the Ministry aims to deploy a cutting-edge tool that can accurately predict future media trends brd on patterns identified in historical data," the Ministry said.

The dashboard so created would be used to provide insights for implementing corrective measures and deploying citizen-oriented communication strategies.

The government also wants to propagate information about its initiatives among the masses using multilingual translation and voice localisation, which will also be developed.

Key features of the multilingual content-support tool will include historical data analysis, language insights, real-time monitoring, customisable alerts, and social media integration for tracking discussions, trends, and engagement.

The platform will have the ability to translate, transcribe, transliterate, and localise content in at least 12 Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Urdu, and Assamese.

Applicants with proficiency in any of 10 additional languages—Kashmiri, Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili, and Dogri—will have an advantage. The platform will also allow for the inclusion of any additional Indian languages as needed.

The design, development, implementation, and maintenance of such an integrated dashboard will be outsourced to an agency with a proven track record in implementing AI-ML-based digital platforms, for which the government has sought EoI.

The Ministry wants to effectively engage citizens and counter misinformation by anticipating emerging trends. The proactiveness allows for swift interventions, enhancing credibility, and public trust.

It will also offer data visualisation, security measures to protect data integrity and confidentiality, report generation, contextual sentiment analysis, and an AI-powered decision support system that provides options for countermeasures or corrective actions based on media feedback.

The dashboard is expected to provide updates four times a day, covering four media formats: print, electronic, online/digital, and social media.

It will scan over 100 print and 4,000 online publications using keywords and monitor more than 200 YouTube accounts across 16 major regional languages, The Hindu reported.

Additionally, the platform will offer data segregation by topic, sector, ministry, and trends, along with report generation, and separate feeds for editorials and opinion pieces.

The contract, awarded following the due process, will initially last for one year, with the possibility of an extension for an additional year. The platform will support both online and offline data input, allowing integration of legacy data from various physical and digital sources.

The Ministry outlined specifications, emphasising user-friendly interactions, including video and text uploads, with the ability to produce translated content in downloadable formats.

“The AI platform should be developed as an application layer over and above Bhashini’s AI models, which enables language translations (text-text, speech-speech, text-speech, and speech-text) to be leveraged," the EoI mentioned.